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End of Summer 2015

The calendar may declare that we have a couple of weeks yet but for me, Labor Day does signal the end of summer. It goes back to my childhood. The South Dakota State Fair would always conclude it’s run on Labor Day and the next day would see the start of school.

Things changed for the Fair after I graduated. There was a misguided move of the event from the week before Labor Day to the last week of July to increase attendance. It failed to do so and after a few years it was moved back to where it belonged. While the Fair was in July, school started around here in the middle of August as it does in most places around the country. Still, by that time I was in college and going to school earlier than I did as a child so it had already changed for me anyway.

I’m not going to give a full recap of my entire summer in this post. I will say that there was some good things that happened like launching this website but there was also some bad. Cancer news has bookended the summer. My dad’s second diagnosis came in the middle of June and last week I got news that someone else I care about has been diagnosed herself. So those two things sandwiching around everything else tend to overshadow everything that happened in the middle.
I guess that’s another reason I’ve been looking for small things to be thankful for because the bigger things just aren’t falling my way. I say falling my way even though it seems a little selfish. I’m not the one actually fighting cancer, that would be my dad and my friend. But that’s what happens sometimes when it is someone you care about that is going through issues you do feel a little of their burden even if you’re not actually carrying anything at all.

On my old personal website when I recapped 2014 I said that I wasn’t going to miss it. I thought that year was not very good at all. A lot of things happened in 2014 that were not good but it is still preferable to 2015 by a mile.

Usually, I am sad to see summer go. I can already start to feel that my body is bracing for the change. On an emotional level I am sad to see summer leave but on an intellectual level I am not because it wasn’t a very good one. That’s the weird thing about my state of mind and why I’m sure I have some degree of Season Affective Disorder. It wasn’t a good summer and so I should be relieved that it is over. Yet, I’m still sad that it is almost over and that the gloomier fall and winter months are coming quickly.

I wish I could end this entry on a more positive note but I’m coming up short of ideas. Things just keep chugging along, that’s about the best I can do right now. I’ll guess I’ll take the easy way out and wish you all a happy Labor Day!